Greetings from a fellow Liverpudlian! (Well, almost, I’m a Wirral squirrel!). Phil here, along with my co-founder and best mate, Will.
If you’re reading this it means that my old colleague, Jimmy, has done me a big favour and got this to you.
Your story of going from one store in Liverpool to one of the fastest growing companies in the UK is genuinely incredible and one we admire.
Drawing inspiration from local success stories like yours, Will and I set out on our own entrepreneurial journey. We ditched our day jobs as lawyers (Phil was a partner at Brabners and always loved the work he did for TJ Morris) (Will is ex-Team GB) and co-founded a social fitness app called ‘GoJoe’ despite being ‘ordinary joes’ and starting with nothing more than a PowerPoint.
Whilst our heritage doesn’t run as deep as Home Bargains (We weren’t around in 1976), GoJoe’s history and story also goes way back…
Will and I met at Uni over 20 years ago and lived in a house with x8 other ‘ordinary joes’. We loved competition and sport and so back in 2005 we hired an athletics stadium (see video abive) to compete against one another in teams. We were all average, but loved it.
The event became an annual tradition between friends and still takes place today. The motivation and enjoyment we got from our yearly track day was something we didn't get from any digital or physical product...whether they be fitness apps or physical events.
A few decades later, we figured out that the secret sauce was friendly team-based competition with 'people you know' (whether friends, colleagues or even famous athletes).
We took the essence behind our physical reunion event and set about building a digital product to give other people the same experience. That led us to meet our technical co-founders, Costi and Mihai, who are also ‘ordinary joes’ but happen to be world class at software engineering. And, so, the GoJoe app was born.
The app makes exercise more social, using the power of teams, gamification and professional athletes.
We’ve got significant traction on the corporate side, providing B2B2C digital staff wellbeing services to major brands (who pay us to acquire users). Despite not having any sales people or marketeers, we made into the top-10 fitness app charts (briefly) and are used by the likes of Amazon, Rolls-Royce and Heineken to motivate, include and engage their staff across the globe.
A case study of what we recently delivered for Natwest is here.
As you can see, we’re already punching above our weight (and that’s saying something, Phil is still carrying a bit of timber) but have bigger plans.
Our vision is to transform boring solo exercise into social virtual experiences to keep people motivated and to give a giant two finger salute to the elitist, dull and broken corporate fitness industry [Inferior products like Virgin Pulse are turning over $500m].
We’re proud to count professional athletes like Alistair Brownlee MBE among our investors, have cash in the bank and over 400% year-on-year growth.
Yet, we’d love to receive backing from a local businessman, especially one who has built a household brand from Liverpool’s core. This would enable us to continue aggressively growing (first stop is overtaking Virgin Pulse) whilst remaining true to our North West roots.
Would love to tell you more – would you be open to us buying you lunch, Tom?
RSVP via Jimmy or e-mail phil@gojoe.com
Best wishes,
- Will & Phil
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